Now I don’t know if this is specific to England cause I haven’t done as much travelling in the last few years like I used to…
But today while the weather was pleasant. I went out for a late afternoon walk. I wasn’t in the mood for a hike, so the next best thing was just to put my feet to the pavement and go check out some local bits.
5 minutes into the walk. I noticed someone in font of me. Casually swigging a Budweiser (You’re in England ffs. At least drink a shitty Carlsberg innit) while chatting on the phone and in their own world probably going for a casual little stroll too.
Now I’m not going to pretend that I know their circumstances but here’s a little “trick” I’ll let you in on…
We are all the same within specific variations.
The main bit being. We’re part of the human race. We are filled with the same flaws and demons and everything in between.
Now I know we’re always looking to better ourselves. Whether that’s mentally, physically, spiritually or financially.
But no matter what we do in life. We are all programmed the same way.
Going back to Drew Eric Whitman and his book Ca$hvertising…
He writes about what he calls The Life-Force 8 which are:
- Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension.
- Enjoyment of food and beverages.
- Freedom from fear, pain, and danger.
- Sexual companionship.
- Comfortable living conditions.
- To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses.
- Care and protection of loved ones.
- Social approval.
Those 8 are what make us tick as humans. We’re born with it and we’ll probably die being influenced by them too.
And so it takes me back to our friend from earlier out strolling with beer in their hand.
I don’t know them personally from a bar of soap. I’ve never spoken a word to them. Don’t even know what they’re remotely interested in, but if I used the LF 8 to craft a message to sell a certain product/belief/outcome to them. I’d have at minimum a 70% chance to sell to them there and then, followed by if they didn’t buy there and then. The 30% would be used to follow and poke and prod at those 8 conditions of being human until they made a purchase.
Now it may sound incredibly nefarious off the rip. But this is the type of thing that happens to all of us on a day to day basis. Yet we’re too blind to it to notice it.
Market research works and knowing who you want to sell to is great, but tapping into our biological driving mechanisms are the shortcuts that everyone seems to be forgetting about.
You can use it for good or evil. (That’s where your ethical compass lies)
But if you’ve got a great product / service / thing to sell. You’d be doing your potential customers a disservice by not using every method available, to make sure they get what it is you’re offering, into their hands.
I have bought many great products and services over the years and I’ve had my fair shitty ones too. Yet every time I look back. There was at least 1 of those things taken from the LF 8 and peppered into the messaging.
And unless we get hit with massage nuclear fallout, which forces us to evolve. I don’t think that biological hardwiring is going anywhere anytime soon.
Use it or don’t use it. That’s up to you.
Stephen Walker.